Downing St welcomes Iran nuclear move

Downing Street today gave a cautious welcome to Iran's announcement that it has suspended its uranium enrichment programme.

Tehran's statement came amid mounting international concern that it may be trying to develop nuclear weapons.

The suspension has yet to be verified by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), but its chef inspector, Mohamed ElBaradei, said he accepted "pretty much everything has come to a halt" in terms of enriched uranium production in Iran.

The IAEA is due to meet on Thursday to decide whether to refer Iran to the UN security council for sanctions.

The official spokesman for the prime minister, Tony Blair, said: "Clearly the important thing is that on the one hand Iran is showing signs of compliance. But equally, the important thing is that it does [comply].

"Therefore we look forward to the IAEA report to the board of governors' meeting and to seeing that Iran's voluntary suspension of all enrichment and processing activities is in place. The important thing is implementation."

Mr ElBaradei told BBC radio Iran's government still had a lot of work to do but added: "They need to build confidence, and the suspension of uranium enrichment is a good step in the right direction."

The move was announced on Iranian state television today in line with a deadline agreed with the EU a week ago. It could save Iran from UN sanctions for failing to honour the deal, which was brokered by Britain, France and Germany last year.

Mr ElBaradei praised Iran's cooperation with the IAEA, saying that so far the agency had been able to visit all the facilities it wanted to. "I would like Iran to continue to demonstrate maximum transparency," he said. "The more transparency they show, the more confidence we can build and the more assurance we can provide for the international community."

He had urged Iran to go further and allow IAEA inspectors to visit facilities so far closed to them that they suspected may be linked to nuclear weapons programmes. "So far, we have been successful," he said.

The US has led calls for Iran to face sanctions, accusing the oil-rich nation of trying to develop atomic weapons behind the veil of a civilian nuclear programme. Iran denies the charge, saying all it wants to do is generate electricity.

US officials are concerned about Iran's continuing production of quantities of uranium hexafluoride, which can be used to make weapons. Although not explicitly barred in the accord, US officials believe the manufacture of the substance amounts to a serious show of bad faith by Iran.

Speaking on the fringes of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum meeting in the Chilean capital, Santiago, yesterday, the US president, George Bush, said: "It is very important for the Iran government to hear that we are concerned about their desires and we are concerned about reports that show that before a certain international meeting they are willing to speed up the processing of materials that could lead to a nuclear weapon."

He added that the European countries that negotiated the deal with Iran "do believe that Iran has got nuclear ambitions, as do we, as do many around the world. This is a very serious matter. The world knows it's a serious matter and we are working together to solve this matter."

Mr ElBaradei said Iran was facing scepticism, particularly from the US, but that his agency had to continue working on the basis of fact. "I'm not ready to jump to conclusions and say this is a weapons programme unless I see a diversion of nuclear material to such a programme or I see clear-cut proof that this is a weapons programme."